The New Heir To The Iron Throne Will Shock You

We really should have noticed this on last season of Game of Thrones, but Myrcella Baratheon’s death threw the succession plan to the Iron Throne in utter chaos. The last surviving Baratheon is now King Tommen, though he’s a Baratheon in name only. Do you know who the next in succession to the Iron Throne is? It's relevant data, given how disposable kings have proven to be. A Mashable story breaks it down like so: Normally it would have been Myrcella, but she’s dead. After that, it would have fallen to Stannis Baratheon, then Shireen, then Renly. Unfortunately, they’re respectively beheaded, burned, and murdered by a smoke monster. After that, it gets more complex. Before Robert (the fat king who died when he got drunk and murked by a boar), a Baratheon named Corwen married Leyne and sired six children. Arion, one of the children, is Robert’s several-greats grandfather. The only other to have surviving children was a daughter named Elyanna, who married Mathin Lannister. His line included Tywin and the Lannisters we all know and loathe today. So that means that Tywin would have been the king. Except he was shot by a crossbow bolt while pooping. Next in line would be his son, Jamie. But Jamie can’t be king because he’s the head of the Kingsguard. So that leaves Tyrion, but he’s exiled and literally universally loathed by all of his kin. So who does that leave? Cersei Lannister. That’s an extremely convoluted bit of genealogy to arrive at a shockingly expected conclusion: That she would be the most powerful human in the realm should her son die. But imagine. Her line ended, she takes the throne. And she would win! But one cannot imagine a more Pyrrhic victory. We hope, for her sake and for the High Sparrow's, that it doesn’t come to that.